My daughter was on Ohio SCHIP as a baby.

[knitter4democracy]

It was practically a full time job to get her on it and keep her on it. I had no insurance that year, since we couldn't afford it, but we made sure she did.

Filling out the forms wasn't too bad, but then I had to deal with my case worker. She'd call during the day to ask a million questions and then tell me that I had to wait some more. What if I hadn't been a stay-at-home mom and instead working at a job where I couldn't get personal calls? I asked her about that once, and she got snarky and said that I would just have to take the calls if I cared enough about my child. Yeah, that's a great answer. :eyes:

Two months of calls almost every day, e-mails, faxes, and more paperwork. It took two months to get her on the insurance, and thank goodness she didn't need anything during that time (we lucked out on the well-baby visit timing). Yes, things were taken care of retroactively, but only after we finally got her on it. That whole time, I was told that we might not qualify still and that any expenses incurred might still be ours to pay. Thank goodness we didn't have any emergencies or anything during that time--we couldn't have afforded it. Hubby was in med school, and we were living off med school loans and savings and some family support (thanks, Mom!).

After we were finally approved and she was on the insurance, I still had a phone call every month to determine whether we still qualified and more paperwork to fax in. Then our pediatrician's network dropped the insurance due to non-payment on claims two months before we had to move for residency. They wanted us to go to to a Medicaid clinic with a bad reputation, and I didn't want to lose our great doctor. I told her, and she told me that she'd see our daughter for free, as her doctor's privilege, if she got sick during that time at all. I fought with our caseworker to keep our doctor's name on the card and lost.

SCHIP sucks, but it's better than nothing. People need the coverage for their kids, but it's far more work than anyone realizes. It's practically a job just to keep your kid on it, since it's better for the state to keep kids off of it.

[Freddie Stubbs]

1. What a coincidence! An Ohio Democrat just yesterday voted against renewing SCHIP

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll906.xml

[Jim__]

2. That the US does not have universal medical coverage is an abomination! - n/t

[Bluerthanblue]

3. thank you

for posting this.

My youngest son is on this now. As a single, very low income mom with no child support and no access to health coverage at all, it is the only way he would have any medical care. My older son started full- time work when he turned 18, and was fortunate enough to get a job which offered him access to medical and dental benefits. For a while, we had even discussed his becoming little bro's 'legal guardian' so he could recieve medical care- but that seemed not only dis-honest and kind of extreem.

It isn't a cake-walk,- we use it very judiciously, and cannot find any dental care which will accept assignment, but i am so grateful for the coverage. The paperwork/documentation end of it is sometimes overwhelming. It can be a humbling, sometimes humilliating process, but such is life-

Thanks for sharing your experience- and good to know there are others like us-

:hi:
blu

[knitter4democracy]

4. I forgot about the crappy dental.

*sigh* What an awful thing--we're all thankful that a crappy plan that takes an amazing amount of work might get renewed.

The documentation and all is massive, isn't it? I got so sick of all that. What if someone can't get it all in or take all the calls?